Frank Baxter Enhanced Support Unit WHS Concerns
During the recent Departmental Committee meeting your delegate advised that there were a number of WHS concerns with the ESU at Frank Baxter and the Centre in general.
Some of these concerns raised include a lack of reporting serious incidents that have and continuously occur within the Enhanced Support Unit (ESU), lack of confidence in management, the amount of building material being found in the ESU and clients self-harming with these materials, and fear of retribution if staff report incidents or WHS concerns.
These concerns were also discussed at the Joint Consultative meeting and from these discussions a site visit was organised for Wednesday, 23 September 2020. In attendance were the Department’s WH&S Senior Advisor Darren Waring, PSA Industrial Officer Gino DiCandilo, YJDC PSA Chair Martin Robinson and your own local delegate Glen Harwood.
The purpose of the visit was to undertake a comprehensive review of WH&S matters within the ESU and the Katandra Unit. Mr Waring submitted a report and a further meeting has been scheduled for Friday, 2 October to discuss the concerns.
Members are reminded that under the Work Health and Safety Act, Section 19 Primary duty of care that the PCBU (Department of Justice, Youth Justice) has the ultimate responsibility to ensure the health and safety of all workers whilst at work and that workers under Section 28 Duties of workers are also responsible for their own and others health and safety whilst at work and must report all WHS through the correct reporting systems.
If members have WHS concerns they must report them to management and should also include their PSA delegates or PSA Industrial staff.
Your local delegates
Byron Hill –
Dave Mangan –
Glen Charters –
Brian Fitzpatrick –
Glen Harwood –
PSA industrial staff
Gino Di Candilo –
Latu Sailosi –
Your union is only as strong as its members: the more members we have, the stronger we are. Your union is not only your voice in the work place, the PSA also handles individual issues at work.
What can you do?
- Give a copy of this bulletin to your colleagues.
- Print this bulletin and put it up on your notice board.
- Ask a colleague to join the PSA.
- Get involved as your Workplace Contact
Not a member?
Join today at www.psa.asn.au/join
United we Bargain, Divided we Beg!